Cotton Reel Lamp.

When i saw the cotton reels i new they would be some sort of ligt fitting, because of the different holes i new i would get a great shadow of them and the light would dance through the holes of these objects and would look beuatiful. I orginionally started out making a candelier out of these cable reel my friend, luke donated to me.
The design was going to be simple, a ring to create the form of a layer of the chandelier and then several rings that the reels would sit in to make them sit of the outside, and facing them in to a poin. Three layers, and all with the same angle decending into a point.
 But  once i had made the first layer and placedthe reel in it seemed, fragile and the harshness of the wire didnt look right againt the softness of the pastel coloured plastic.

Another idea of how the rings could hold, but wasn't sturdy enough. 

This is what i used to form the rings to hold the reels.

The rings kept slipping off when we were spot welding so we hammered a flat space onto the big wire and the rings to hold the two when sot welding and create a stronger weld.

Final look to the top tier. I dint like how flexible it was and how bouncy the reels were so i scrapped the whole idea.

 So i redesigned, the came up with liek a decending chandelier, where they decend, in a single line, coiling round and down. so i just grabbed two peices of wire and started attactching the reels, making sure i moved them up or down through the holes in the reel to create the decending look. But the  wire was a little ridged and strted making these harsh bends in the wire and bumps that would create a block for it to be a smooth circular decend down. then we were just movin them arond, up and down of one another and came to the idea of them interchanging, so oen facing up, one facing down because the reels would have a fattening gradient towards the bottom to the top, so then they would lock ito the slopes of one another, this helped with the second desing idea, but it didnt look as smooth as i waned it to look beacsue once they were placedbeside each other, upside down and the rihht way round, and they locked into one another, that then created a ridgedness and a staight line for the reels.

Then when you tried to feed them in different ways it would creat this step look, where there was a clear decend and it wasnt smooth, nor looked nice.

I took the idea of the decending row of reels and decided that just to have them circled into a lampshade.

So i ponderd... I messed around with creating maybe just a straight circle, three tier chandelier and then once doing that, thought a lamp would look better. So i alwats move them around in different designs and different shapes, sizes and structures, then it just clicks, and it did with this one, yes, its not a straightt standard circle but as the light dances through the holes of thses reels anyway it wont be just so. So i made the lamp shade, but felt t could be made as a whole by using the reels as a stand as well, I experimented, with different colours, stayles and sizes and found the perfect structure for the shade to sit with. I chose to use cable ties because they are small, easy to use, strong and colorful. All i had to do was connect one with another using the same holes on either reel and pull tight and snip off the remains. Then when fitting it out, it turned out to be a happy accident when the cable for the light was more or less the same size, just with a little widening, as the holes on the bottom layer.

Using a exhibition light we were able to see the potential of having it as a lamp. 

I played around with loads of options on how short, long, fat, thin, stable to have the legs and came up  with the final design.

Shelved... but i might come back to them and have another go.